Stolen traps

C

captct

Guest
Does anyone else out there get as choked up as I do when their gear gets nicked.Between June and October I lost 3 prawn traps and four crab traps.Not counting the times I'm sure my traps have been pulled and emptied in the middle of the night.
Two prawn traps were taken off Whiskey point ...and one from Deepcove.Three crab traps were taken in Cowichan bay and one in Burgoyne Bay.


It was an expensive summer for traps.Its been getting worse IMHO.
short of staking out the traps.How are you going to catch the culprits.Local gossip has a pretty good idea who empties the traps at night....but not who steals the gear.Cowichan Bay is a small community.Its pretty tough to get away with **** like that without someone on the dock finding out.Its not just my bad luck either ...lots of guys this year have had problems.

Any one have any Ideas how to slow this down or stop it....other than always go crabing during the day and hang out near your gear
 
Personally, I NEVER let my traps out of my sight. I know it's nice to leave them with the hopes they'll still be there, but I just don't take that chance anymore.
The people doing this have to realize that someday, someone is going to get hurt. I've heard of people putting trebble hooks on their ropes to deter theives. Lots of traps have gone missing between Crofton and Tent Island as well.
Sometimes tugboats with barges or log booms are to blame, so we can't always jump to conclusions.
The only true way to catch the culprits is to hide and watch on a rock bluff with a spotting scope. Sooner or later they'll get caught.
Truly sad that it has come to this.
 
quote:Originally posted by adrianna3

Personally, I NEVER let my traps out of my sight. I know it's nice to leave them with the hopes they'll still be there, but I just don't take that chance anymore.
The people doing this have to realize that someday, someone is going to get hurt. I've heard of people putting trebble hooks on their ropes to deter theives. Lots of traps have gone missing between Crofton and Tent Island as well.
Sometimes tugboats with barges or log booms are to blame, so we can't always jump to conclusions.
The only true way to catch the culprits is to hide and watch on a rock bluff with a spotting scope. Sooner or later they'll get caught.
Truly sad that it has come to this.
Click to expand...

I agree with adrianna3 on both accounts. I've amazingly never had a trap of either type stolen but will no longer leave prawn traps out of my site because of all I've heard about missing gear. Crab traps you almost have to leave and hope they're ok. All you can do is avoid areas that are problematic and Brentwood to Pat Bay seems to be such a spot for prawn traps anyway.

Surveillance is the only way to catch these low lifes, time consuming and awkward, but the only way I can see.

By time I doctor up my 2 trap set-ups with bait cups, lead, rope, float etc., it is well over $200 and a few hours of time. Too much to risk IMO.
 
Never leave my traps over night , never in 30 years ; the problem of thieves has existed that long around here.

AL
 
Only lost one that was my fault though. A friend set it for me to pick up later that night and when i forgot. 5 days latter when i went to set the traps. OH YA &*%$. Oh course it was gone. Are there many barges in you area? i always see a few traps stuck on log booms as they drive past.
 
No traffic at all where I set the traps....none that would independantly clip my gear and no others....the irony of the ones taken from Cow Bay is ....thats where I live half the time
About 1000yds from where the traps were sitting.Taken right under my nose.

I guess Im going to have to sit right on top of the things and read a book
 
domans is hauling booms in and out of cow bay all the time .. if u dont want to lose ur trap put it by that big grey house on the point or close in to burgoyne bay
if its not in close the booms will get them everytime , guys a domans get FREE CRAB trap all the time that way
 
Just to satisfy my curiosity, why would you leave your traps to soak overnight.
In my limited experience, the little buggers have usually stripped out the bait in the wire bucket in a 4-5 hour soak. No bait, no more attraction. Unless the crabs still outside are attracted by the noise created by the ones in the trap, or they are mounting some sort of ill-conceived rescue mission.
Just wondering.
 
Mill Bay is the worst. I have lost so many traps that unless I can't stay with them I dont even bother. Last year we actually caught a boat moving up to our traps with a pole out to hook the float. They boogied when they saw us. My wife wanted to chase them but they were in a large sea ray and my 90hp was not up to the task.
 
I prawn in the inlet and have found MANY lost traps. The ledges are steep and it's easy to have a trap drift over the edge as it falls in a current. I've also heard of commercial guys dragging traps into deeper water so they can run their line without us 'sporties' in the way. The traps then drift around the inlet (or sink). Many of the traps seem to end up in the same spot, right in the middle of Pat Bay in 200ft to 300ft of water. The currents seem to consistently 'dump' the traps there. When there are phone numbers visible we call the owner(s) and let them know. Most everyone figures they were stolen and are quite surprised to hear they are still in the Inlet. I agree there is a lot of theft, but occasionally the traps just drift away.
 
Always with the commercial guys....Who here thinks that a boat pulling either 300 or 500 traps in a day is going to waste the time to screw with 2 sporty traps? If they want to lay gear in a spot with sport traps then they will just set over top, not waste a bunch of time to sabotage someone that might take 0.0000001% of their daily prodution away by fishing there.
 
chevy not slaggin commercials but lots of my friends fish prawns and they do F*&^ with peoples gear. When their gear is soakin in a spot they will sometimes move or take gear.Not sure if its common practice or their just idiots though. I just try to avoid where their setting saves both sides a headache
 
Gus Liske crabbed for years in Renfrew and I know him and talked to him about the perception of the commercial guy lifting traps.
He said to me " that would be very stupid as all that the sports guys would do after catching a commercial guy once would be to come along and cut all your floats off and then I have to drag to pick them up and it would be pure stupidity to do it then ....right ? time is money and who would want to face that mess day after day ?"

AL
 
Good point. Every commercial fishermen I ever asked said he would never do it either. Although I bet if you asked most people if they have ever done anything illegal they would say no not me.
 
Sometimes i have had commercial's lay their trap lines on top
of mine, and under the a high tide it can suck your float under.
Maybe some of those traps are still out there fishing ?
 
I came accross a large ball of floating rope near Botswain bank in 80 feet of water, on the way back from prawning near the end of the Summer. In that mess of rope there were 2 commercial traps with no floats to be seen. I have returned traps to Fred at Mill bay marina in the past that were floating in 600+ feet of water. He received on average 10 a week that were floated and dropped of to him to call the numbers on the float.

I know a few commercial guys who are also good friends who regualarly return floaters and misslaid gear to us sporties, i would hesitate before placing blame on them.

The last time Striper Jack and i were out there was a full size BC Ferry doing hot laps off wain rock, must have been testing or something? I wonder how many traps he sucked up?
 
I work on the tugs and booms in Campbell River and just the other day I acquired 2 stainless steel traps and about 750' of beautiful new line that got sucked into a boom somewhere between Vancouver and here. Obviously there was no buoy left so I don't know who they belonged to, but thank you very much.
 
Yo Red
Thats meeeean.... man![:0]
If you lost yours, it would be nice if someone returned them to you.
Or tried to...what a concept, hey?

Hmmmmm
vic
 
What do you want me to do? There's no buoy, no name on the traps, and they're from somewhere between Vancouver and Campbell River. If someone on here can identify them, they can have em back.
 
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